In the field of the credit cards and the debit cards, the migration is going on from the use of cards provided with a magnetic band for the storage of sensitive data, to the use of cards in which such information is instead memorized in an electronic microcircuit (that, usually, includes an electrically programmable non-volatile semiconductor memory) integrated in a small chip of semiconductor material, in turn embedded in the card. Compared to cards with magnetic band, the cards provided with microcircuit are as a matter of fact “smarter” (for this reason, in jargon, they are referred to as “smart cards”) and ensure an increased security, and are therefore deemed preferable to the former by all the most important suppliers of services of credit payment (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and debit payment, including bank institutes.
It is therefore predictable that, during the next two or three years, the vast majority of the credit/debit cards currently circulating, provided with magnetic band, will be replaced by microcircuit-based identification cards.
It appears therefore that, in order to be capable of facing the predictable increase of demand, the firms operating in the field of manufacturing of the supports destined to constitute credit/debit cards would have great benefit if the operating speed of the current manufacturing equipments of such supports were increased.
Particularly, it is foreseen that also the new cards, as the current ones, will have to carry a “mechanic” type personalization, consisting in strings of alphabetical or numerical characters or, in general, of symbols, usually realized by embossing (i.e., in relief on the active surface of the card), carrying for example the card holder name, the card number and the expiry date thereof.
The embossing operation is typically performed through so-called “drum-like” embossing machines, that comprise a characters-supporting drum, revolving about a vertical axis, and in which two circumferential successions of seats are realized, in proximity of two vertically-facing peripheral edges of the drum, and among which a groove is interposed, adapted to receive a card to be mechanically personalized, in a position lying on a horizontal plane. Each seat houses in a sliding way along the drum axis a punch block or a matrix block, conjugated to each other, activatable by means of suitable percussion members. By inserting the card to be submitted to embossing, lying on a horizontal plane, into the groove of the drum, and by rotating the drum so as to select the desired character, the activation of the respective punch-matrix pair causes the embossing of the selected character on the surface of the card.
While the selection of the different symbols to be realized on the card is carried out by rotating the characters-supporting drum about its axis, the selection of the points on the card surface where such symbols have to be realized is performed moving the card with respect to the drum in the plane where the card lies. A known solution for moving the card in the plane where the card lies, and for positioning the card with respect to the characters-supporting drum, calls for using elements like tweezers, typically in metallic material, moving integrally to a carriage that is movable along two orthogonal directions in the horizontal plane in which the card lies, parallel respectively to the longer side and the shorter side of the card.
The card, coming for example from a “virgin” cards feeder, or from an upstream manufacturing station, such as for example a station of magnetic personalization of the card, is received and grabbed by the tweezers, which needs to be preliminary brought into a load position of the new card. Once the new card has been grabbed by the tweezers, the mechanical personalization phase is started; during such a phase, the carriage that supports the tweezers is properly moved along the X axis and the Y axis, under the control of an electronic control unit, so as to bring each time the desired point of the card surface under the characters-supporting drum that, made to rotate still under the control of the control unit, positions the punch-matrix pair corresponding to the desired character in correspondence of such card surface point. The activation of the punch-matrix pair thus determines the embossing of the desired character, in that point of the card surface. The process is repeated for all the characters to be engraved on the card.
At the end of the mechanical personalization, the card, still held by the tweezers, which are moved by the respective carriage, is brought into an unloading position, from which the card is taken in charge by the manufacturing station downstream or, if the manufacturing is finished, is expelled. Only after the card has been unloaded can the tweezers be brought, by the respective carriage, back into the load position, so as to be ready to grab the new card to be personalized.
The Applicant has observed that this solution shows significant limitations in terms of operating speed; particularly, in order to be able to load a new card to be mechanically personalized, it is not only necessary that the process of mechanical personalization of the preceding card be completed, but also that the personalized card be already unloaded, and that, once the personalized card has been unloaded, the tweezers are brought, from the card unloading position, back into the card loading position. It thus normally occurs that a new card to be personalized has to wait at the entry of the embossing station, despite the embossing operation of the preceding card has already been completed. These dead times have a negative impact on the productivity of the machine, and constitute a bottleneck against the increase of the productivity of the manufacturing plants of the cards.
Moreover, in order to be able to hold the card during its processing, the tweezers are normally provided with grab elements, typically in the form of small teeth, that, due to the pressure that needs to be exerted for holding the card during its processing, inevitably leave undesired scraps and imprints on the finished card. The Applicant has ascertained that this results particularly undesirable.